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Celebrate Women’s History Month at the Library with Events for All Ages
Check out our authors, oral histories, films, arts and crafts, storytimes, music and more!
March 14: Jacqueline Woodson in Conversation with Library Director Diane Kresh
Kick off the 2019 Arlington Reads series with bestselling author Jacqueline Woodson!
Learn how she weaves real life experiences into her novels, including “Brown Girl Dreaming,” which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, and “Another Brooklyn,” her first adult novel in twenty years.
Arlington Reads Signature Author
Jacqueline Woodson in Conversation with Library Director Diane Kresh
Central Library Auditorium
Thursday, March 14, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
The 2019 Arlington Reads series “Our Stories, Ourselves” features four women writers whose diverse voices and experiences remind us that everyone has a story. Appearing in April and May: Mary Karr, Susan Orlean and Tracy K. Smith.
Possible Catalog, App and Library Account Outage from 10 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Routine County network maintenance may affect the Library catalog, app and library account access between 10 p.m. and 12 a.m. on Wednesday night, Feb. 27.
We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.
FY2020 County Budget Information
Arlington’s annual operating budget outlines spending on County services and administration, including the Library, for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Learn all about it in the Arlington County website.
Green Valley Pharmacy
Dr. Leonard “Doc” Muse
Have you traveled down Shirlington Rd in the Nauck neighborhood, and stopped for a snack at the one story, white, shingled building on the corner of Shirlington Rd and 24th Rd S?
Established in 1952, the Green Valley Pharmacy is the first (and only) pharmacy and lunch counter in Arlington that would serve African American patrons during the Jim Crow era.
The man who opened the pharmacy was Dr. Leonard “Doc” Muse, a pharmacist and social activist. Muse was born in Florida in 1923 and after serving in World War II used his GI benefits to attend the Howard University School of Pharmacy. In 1952, he and his partner Waverly Jones bought the former Hyman’s Grocery and opened the Green Valley Pharmacy. The pharmacy served black and white customers, but mainly served as a neighborhood hub for Nauck- as a lunch counter, a drug store, and a first job for many young people in Green Valley. Doc provided free lunches for the hungry and free medications for those who could not afford their prescriptions.
In 2013, Green Valley Pharmacy was named as an Historic District by the Arlington County Board, and Muse himself was honored by the Arlington NAACP with the Community Appreciation Award. Muse’s commitment to social activism established him as a pillar of the Nauck community, positively influencing the young people of Green Valley and providing a social and political hub for the residents of Nauck.
Dr. Leonard Muse died on August 20, 2017.
A celebration of life service was held in his honor at Drew Model School on Saturday, August. 27, 2017.
The photo of Green Valley Pharmacy was taken by Matthew Welborn in 2010, as part of a student photography contest, "Capturing Arlington," sponsored by the Center for Local History.
To see more items like these, or to learn more about Arlington's history, visit the Center for Local History on the first floor of the Central Library.
Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?
Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.
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Get Your 2019 Lit Up Ball Tickets Now!
It’s the Season’s Brightest Library Party!
Date: Friday, March 22, 8:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Location: Shirlington Branch Library
A Fancy Dress and Literary-Themed Social Event for Adults, Presented by the Friends of the Arlington Public Library. This year’s theme is Books and Bygones: A Lavish Night at the Library.
Tickets – $35 each – on sale from the Friends of the Arlington Public Library.
The Lit Up Ball will feature:
- Prizes awarded for best Art Deco and bygone era fashions
- Live music
- Raffle baskets
- Scavenger hunt and prizes
- Light appetizers and dessert
- Drinks available for purchase with cash or credit
This event is for ages 18+ only.
The Lit Up Ball was created in 2013 to raise community awareness of Library programs. The Friends of the Arlington Public Library is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging and assisting the Library in providing high quality services and collections.
Author Susan Orlean Postponed Feb. 20 Due to Weather Forecast
Due to the inclement weather forecast, the author talk event with Susan Orlean has been postponed until further notice.
Next month, we look forward to seeing you at the Jacqueline Woodson Arlington Reads author event on March 14.
Cub Scout Pack 589 and Ernest Johnson
Cub Scout Pack #589 was one of Arlington’s first African American Cub Scout Packs, established in 1952 and founded by Ernest Johnson.
This photo shows the April 1953 induction of new pack members, with Johnson standing to the right.
Founding Cub Scout Pack #589 was part of Ernest Johnson's efforts to give African American children in segregated Arlington a variety of activities to help them grow and have fun. As the director of the Arlington Department of Parks and Recreation’s Negro Recreation Section, (founded in 1950), Johnson worked tirelessly to expand the Section’s sports, arts, and culture programs for African American children in the County. He oversaw the development of Jennie Dean Field and a new recreation center at Hoffman-Boston on S. Queen Street, known as the Carver Center. The Section also organized picnics, beauty pageants, and socials.
The County recognized Johnson’s abilities as an organizer and developer of programs, and when Arlington desegregated their Parks and Recreation facilities and programs in the spring of 1961, he became the Supervisor of the Centers Section, overseeing “teen clubs, free classes, and meeting of non-Department sponsored clubs in the centers.”
Johnson stayed with the Department until his retirement in 1982. Arlington then celebrated Ernest Johnson Day with a parade, softball game, and testimonial dinner.
Ernest Johnson's work for the County is remarkable in another way: he had the foresight to hire a professional photographer to attend many of the Negro Recreation Section’s activities.
To see more of these photographs, visit the Ernest Johnson Collection, Photograph Collection 218, in the Arlington Community Archives online.
Oral History: Desegregation of Arlington’s Public Schools
Interview with Dorothy Hamm, School Desegregation Activist
In honor of the 60th anniversary of the desegregation of Arlington County public schools, the Center for Local History presents an oral history clip from an interview with Dorothy Hamm, who lived in Arlington at the height of the battle to desegregate Arlington’s public schools, and was part of different lawsuits throughout the county to integrate not only the schools but restaurants, hospitals, and theaters.
In this clip from 1986, Hamm shared her experience trying to register her son for school at Stratford and her activity in lawsuits to desegregate public facilities in Arlington County.
Dorothy Hamm has been honored by the County with the naming of a new middle school in Cherrydale, the Dorothy Hamm Middle School, set to open in September 2019.
NARRATOR: Dorothy Hamm
INTERVIEWER 1: Edmund Campbell
INTERVIEWER 2: Cas Cocklin
DATE: February 21, 1986
Transcript:
EC: You recall the Supreme Court decision directing the desegregation of the public schools "with all deliberate speed" which was made in l954. After that time, you became rather active in the shall I call it the desegregation movement, did you not?
DH: Yes, I did. My reason for doing that was because I felt that with the Supreme Court's decision my two sons would have an opportunity to attend Stratford, an integrated school and I told them the meaning of the Supreme Court's decision, and I also told them that they would be going to Stratford. However, almost 2 years had passed, they still had not been permitted to attend; and this is why I really got involved.
EC: What did you do?
DH: On one occasion, my husband and I took our oldest son to Stratford in an attempt register him, and he was denied. I was also one of the original plaintiffs in the suit of 14 parents and 22 children.
EC: What suit was this?
DH: This was the suit that was filed by the N.A.A.C.P. in May of 1956, 2 years after the Supreme Court's decision.
EC: This was the suit, was it, in the federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia before Judge Albert Bryan?
DH: Yes, it was.
EC: And you were one of the original plaintiffs?
DH: That's right.
EC: Did you take any other action at that time other than participate in that suit? I mean were you involved in any other desegregation movements at that time?
DH: Not really at that time. They came just a little bit later my suits involving the theatres, the hospital, eating places and working places.
CC: May I ask, in these desegregation suits where the children were involved, what was the feeling of the children? Were they truly indignant and anxious for equality of education or opportunities or was there any compulsion on the part of the parents requiring the children's cooperation?
DH: No, I think all the children were very eager to go. All of the parents were very anxious for their children to attend the school because they felt this was a better opportunity for their children knowing that all of them had attended segregated schools.
For more information on desegregation in Arlington County and its schools, please visit Arlington Public Library’s Project DAPS website.
Photo of students and librarian in the library of Hoffman-Boston from the George Melvin Richardson Collection, 1950s: projectdaps.org/items/show/42
The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.
What is the oral history collection?
Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.
The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.
To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.